Author of 99% (FT Best Books of 2019) and founder of the 99% Organisation.
Follow us here:
@99organisation
.bsky.soc
Visiting Professor at IE Business School.
If you want to see the UK remain a functioning democracy with a strong social contract and are concerned that we may be heading for something rather different, take a look at the 99% Organisation.
Thread (1/13)
Sunak says that “government can’t be expected to solve every problem.”
Here is a list of problems this government cannot be expected to solve.
If we want them solved, we need a different government.
Thread (1/14)
In the wake of Steve Bray’s arrest, this thread counts the warning signs the UK has largely ignored.
And shows what we can do about it.
@snb19692
Thread (1/10)
The Conservatives are still repeating the increasingly ludicrous claim that they have been "getting the big calls right."
As this thread shows, nothing could be further from the truth.
Thread (1/10)
This thread looks at what it will take for us to realise how dangerously close to dictatorship we are.
And it suggests two things you can do today to reduce the risk.
Thread (1/15)
Sometimes a moment can be pivotal in a way which is not obvious at the time.
This thread explores whether the UK is at such a pivotal moment now, without most of the population realising it.
And suggests what we can do about it.
Thread (1/28)
Conservative Peer Baroness Michelle Mone and her family received almost £29 million from a firm on whose behalf she had lobbied.
This thread looks at what she did, and whether she is an outlier in such behaviour.
Thread (1/20)
Looking at this government’s track record, it is natural to assume they are incompetent.
This thread argues that, on the contrary, they have been focussed, effective and even innovative … in pushing forward an agenda which is bad for almost everyone in Britain.
Thread( 1/20)
This thread explores the gradual dawning of awareness of the damage done by this Conservative Government, and what we can do now that we are aware.
@michael_merrick
Nobody is abusing him "for being open about his catholic faith." Plenty of people are open about that faith and are not abused.
The reason he is abused is this:
(3/9)
Rather than choose a neutral venue, he deliberately picked an extreme right-wing, opaquely funded think tank to set out his ideas for the country.
What signal did he intend to send, and to whom?
Thread (1/8)
This thread explains why Ken Clarke’s comment about elected dictatorships should be taken seriously.
We still have time to save UK democracy, but we do not have time to waste.
Thread (1/14)
This thread looks at the risks of the UK becoming a society where the wealthy and powerful set the laws but are not obliged to follow them, while the rest of us (even collectively) have no say in the setting of the law but face heavy penalties if we do not obey
(2/15)
The challenge is that we have a government which is failing the UK on every measure, and which is busy dismantling UK democracy in order to govern for the benefit of its extremely wealthy donors
(5/15)
They have just passed a Health & Care Bill which will enable them – finally – to get rid of the NHS as we know it and turn the UK system into something much more like the US system.
This will be literally ruinous for many UK citizens.
Thread (1/11)
Truss has been in the cabinet for 12 years and is co-responsible for the damage done to the UK over that time.
But in just 2 weeks, she has dramatically accelerated the destruction.
This thread looks at what she ‘offers’ to the UK and what we can do about it.
(2/13)
We cannot expect this government to solve the cost-of-living crisis.
“Where other governments have supported consumers and small business and imposed windfall taxes and price caps on energy companies, ours has declined to act.”
(3/15)
For the first time since the early 1800s, we have sustained impoverishment of the mass of the British population: most people are poorer today than they were in 2010 when the government first came to power.
Thread (1/14)
This thread explains the assault the UK government is mounting on the NHS: its historical roots, its recent manifestations and the plans for the future.
Most importantly, it explains what we need to do to prevent the assault succeeding.
(8/14)
You should not vote Conservative if you want your healthcare to be properly funded, cover all your health needs and remain free at the point of use.
(7/15)
Last night, they put the Electoral Commission, which is the (formerly independent) body that is meant to ensure that UK elections are free and fair under the control of … Michael Gove.
And from now on, you will not be able to vote without a passport or driving licence.
(14/14)
That does not leave many people who should be voting Conservative.
If you would like to help tackle all these problems, take a look at the 99% organisation, sign up and join us.
Thread (1/20)
Being a civilised country is expensive: you need a good infrastructure, a strong education system, a healthy population, etc.
And that requires taxes, which the wealthy contribute to.
If you didn't want to contribute, you would have to destroy the social contract.
Thread (1/16)
The far right seized on the 75th Anniversary to claim that it is time to replace the NHS with a privatised, social insurance model.
This thread explains what they want, how they lie to us and what we can do about it.
Thread (1/23)
Why is Sunak unfit to be Prime Minister?
3 key reasons:
1. No regard for ethics or law
2. Track record of failing the British people
3. An agenda with no mandate
(11/14)
Or will we recognise that – as last week’s by-election results showed – this government is much more fragile than it wants us to believe.
And working together, we can resist and unseat them.
#IStandWithSteveBray
(3/13)
We cannot expect this government to fund the NHS properly.
“We shouldn’t always go first to the state – what kind of society would that be? Health and Social Care: it begins at home. It should be family first, then the community then the state.”
(4/9)
Not to the mass of British voters who largely neither know nor care what the think tanks say.
But to the nameless backers of the think tanks themselves, who are busy planning a grim future for the UK.
Our British Lion 🦁
Boris Johnson loved by
#Ukraine
️ & universally recognised as leader of the free world stands proudly in front of other leaders at The NATO Summit.
He doesn’t join in with trivial chit chat
He is on a mission to defeat Russia.
Hero🇬🇧💪
(6/15)
They have been systematically destroying our democratic safeguards – just in case we might resent being made poorer and having our healthcare removed and try to do something about it.
Thread (1/5)
The Government’s Health & Care Bill is now in the House of Lords.
If we allow it to pass without amendment, the impact on us all will be grave. But it is not too late to de-fang the Bill.
Please write to your MP: we have made it easy for you (see last Tweet).
(8/14)
When the law came into force, we saw the government use it to shut down a one-man protest, as that protest is beginning to gain traction.
That is more like a dictatorship than the democracy we have been in the past.
Will we ignore that?
On the day that “noisy” protest becomes unlawful under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, at least 20 police officers have just surrounded anti-Brexit protestor Steve Bray outside the Houses of Parliament and seized his loud speaker.
@LBC
(7/14)
Many of us did not take the Police Bill seriously. Not quite realising that the right to be a little noisy in a protest is an important human right.
So we ignored the dangers.
Thread
As John Major said:
“The concept that [the Cabinet] care for the NHS is odd: Gove wants to privatise it; Boris wants to charge people for using it; and Duncan Smith wants an insurance system. The NHS is as safe with them as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python.”
(9/10)
When Sue Gray’s report showed Johnson lied to the House – a resigning offence – he re-wrote the Ministerial Code to remove its teeth.
And finally, we are realising the way the wind is blowing.
Please write to your MP.
(3/14)
Most of us ignored Philip Hammond’s warning about “extreme right-wingers” and radicals wanting to use the shock of Brexit to reorder society against the wishes of the British people.
(14/15)
So let us make sure we take it.
Now is a time when we can pile on the pressure and get rid of the worst PM in modern British history.
Let’s do it.
Thread(1/2)
The BBC will remain unbalanced while the top management are all Conservative Party place-men.
And this in dangerous for UK democracy...
The BBC: Balanced or Slanting Right? via
@99organisation
@ByDonkeys
@carolvorders
Yes, we still think of this election as being a competition between political parties. That is wrong:
"The battle in the UK is not the traditional competition between parties, but a much more dangerous struggle between a small number of billionaires and the bulk of the UK
(12/13)
We cannot even expect this government to treat us as having rights as citizens.
“The new Sovereign Individual will operate ... in the same physical environment as the ordinary, subject citizen, but in a separate realm politically.”
(10/15)
All of this is extremely depressing.
But at the same time, we have some glimmers of hope: Johnson’s tenure may be near its end.
His personal approval rating has plummeted, and his party is now way behind in the Polls:
(2/10)
The stark warnings from Philip Hammond and other leading Conservatives should have warned us.
But most of us are not really interested in politics, so we didn’t notice.
(13/15)
So a bad result in the May elections could well be the trigger for his removal.
That is not the end of the risk for the UK, as the most likely successors are equally bad – but it is an important first step.
(2/8)
Ken Clarke said:
“Boris is … impatient with constitutional constraints. He gets angry if courts or parliament interfere. We are dangerously close to the “elected dictatorship” that Lord Hailsham warned us about half a century ago.”
(8/10)
When it was confirmed that Johnson had broken his own laws, even though ordinary people were fined up to £10,000 we were assured that a grown-up democracy would not be distracted by such fluff.
So many of us did not take it too seriously
(7/10)
The dismantling of democratic safeguards like having an independent Electoral Commission to ensure fair elections, would have worried us if we had seen how the pieces of the jigsaw fitted together.
But we were not really informed of that.
Thread (1/8)
This thread explains why Ken Clarke’s comment about elected dictatorships should be taken seriously.
We still have time to save UK democracy, but we do not have time to waste.
(6/10)
The government's response to water companies pumping our rivers full of sewage did alarm many of us, and there was widespread revulsion.
But we didn’t see the big picture so we were not too concerned.
(5/10)
The government’s response to the Owen Paterson affair – seeking to legalise corruption – should have alerted us.
But that is not how it was generally reported, so we weren’t aware of the full implications.
(7/28)
This is no aberration; our government is transforming the UK into a Plunderstate:
•The UK government is dominated by market fundamentalists
•They have created mechanisms to facilitate the kind of transaction
•They are dismantling our democratic safeguards
Thread (1/22)
After 13 years in power, the Conservatives want us to believe that the UK is safe in their hands.
This thread explains how, given a just a few more years, they can complete their transformation of the UK into a playground for their donors – at our expense.
Thread (1/16)
Now that Johnson is finally on his way out, the Conservatives, a far-right party, are likely to become even more extreme.
Unless we stop them.
(4/10)
With the result that we have had the worst-performing economy in the developed world since 2016, and most people are poorer today than they were in 2010 – an unheard of disaster.
Thread (1/14)
When other countries fall prey to dictatorship, I have often wondered why the population ignored so many warning signs.
Why did they not take steps – even simple ones like not voting for those who were heading for dictatorship?
Now I wonder about the UK.